weekly posts on literature, languages, and learning
At the very beginning of this year’s Lenten season, we’re going to read a short poem by Christina Rossetti (1830–1894), the celebrated English poet and writer of devotional literature. Her two-part poem “Ash Wednesday” brings into focus the meaning of this important day in the church calendar. The poem is simple, but it's not exactly …
Amos Russel Wells (1862–1933) was an American scholar and Christian activist. He authored numerous works, including poetry, essays, young adult fiction and devotional writings. In this post we’ll read his poem “Some Questions for Saint Valentine’s Day.” You can tell that Wells was a classicist: addressing Cupid rather than the venerable Christian saint and martyr, …
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The Grammaticus blog is no stranger to the works of Sarah Orne Jewett. Her novella The Country of the Pointed Firs is one of my favourite books, and I wrote about it in the review accessible here. In this post we’ll read one of her winter-themed children’s poems: A Country Boy in Winter, first published …
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A while ago I posted a lengthy grammar article about the conditional sentences in English, and in this post we’ll read a poem by Rudyard Kipling that can be used to illustrate conditional clauses. It has some great vocabulary, too. (Not to mention lofty ideas!) Rudyard and John Kipling Titled “If—”, Kipling wrote this poem …
Helen Hunt Jackson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on 15 October, 1830. A prolific writer, poet, and activist dedicated to the rights of Native Americans, she also happened to be a classmate of another—nowadays much more famous—Amherst poet: Emily Dickinson. The two women remained in contact throughout their lives, chiefly through correspondence. Helen Hunt Jackson …
Thomas Hardy was an English poet who lived and worked between two literary eras, connecting the legacy of British Romanticism with the early 20th century poetry. Best known as a novelist, thanks to classics such as Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd, he is also rightly considered one of the finest …
Continue reading "“Winter in Durnover Field” by Thomas Hardy"
We’ve encountered Walt Whitman’s poetry on this blog before: in a longish post where I offered some advice on how to interpret poems, I presented his poem To a Stranger. And now I would like to share with you another poem of his, on a similar theme of the need for love and companionship. Walt …
Christina Rossetti was a 19th century British poet, the younger sister of the famous Pre-Raphaelite painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Often struggling with depression and suffering from poor health, she found solace in religion, influenced by the spirituality of the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement. As a poet, Christina explored various themes, frequently drawing inspiration from …
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Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) was a Canadian author nowadays best known for her novel Anne of Green Gables. Even those who haven’t read the book about the charming red-haired orphan girl must have watched the very successful 1985 TV series by the same title or the more recent Netflix adaptation Anne with an E. Lucy …
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With Thanksgiving Day (the U.S. one) coming up, in this week’s poetry post I’ll share with you a cheerful holiday-themed poem. Titled “A Thanksgiving Dinner”, it was written by Maude M. Grant (1876-1941), a children’s poet and fiction writer from Michigan. If you’re learning or teaching English, you can use this poem to introduce or …
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